Kolkata: The Kolkata high court on Friday (September 13) vacated its order granting protection from arrest to former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam.

The court also rejected Kumar's prayer for quashing of a CBI notice that sought his appearance for questioning in the case.

Kumar, who is currently the West Bengal CID additional director general, was part of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the state government to investigate the scam before the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in 2014, along with other chit fund cases.

The Saradha group of companies has allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2500 crore, promising higher rates of returns on their investments.

The Supreme Court had ordered a probe into the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam and transferred the case to CBI in 2014.

Thousands of investors were left in the lurch by the scam, and it led to the arrest of many leaders and ministers of the TMC. All of them are now out on bail.

Saradha group founder Sudipta Sen and his associate Debjani Mukherjee were arrested in 2013 from Kashmir. They are now in custody.